Nypost........
The father of a Temple University sophomore who was beaten by a roving teen mob last week said people ?should draw their own conclusions? about whether the string of attacks against students and cops was racially motivated.
Joe Lauletta, 50, wrote on Facebook a day after the flash mob-style attacks that a group of 30 to 40 ?black teenagers? assaulted his daughter, Christina, 19, and her two male friends on their way home from a Temple football game at Lincoln Financial Field on Friday.
Lauletta said the post, which has been shared more than 5,100 times, contains comments alleging a racial component to the crimes, although he refused to echo those sentiments on Tuesday.
?Well, I haven?t been saying that because everybody is trying to get me to say it and I don?t know if I want to be that person,? Lauletta told The Post. ?Everyone can draw their own conclusions.?
Lauletta said the possibility of the attacks being motivated by race ? perhaps as a sort of gang initiation ? was part of the reason why his story was shared so frequently and as far away as Africa.
?That?s why it spread so fast,? Lauletta said. ?If you read my Facebook page, everybody?s saying it.?
While authorities have found no evidence so far to back up those claims, Lauletta wrote on Facebook Tuesday night that the FBI was investigating his daughter?s attack to determine whether it was, in fact, a hate crime.
?They are analyzing all video coverage,? he said.
In an email to The Post, FBI spokeswoman Carrie Adamowski neither confirmed nor denied the existence of an investigation, citing Department of Justice policy.
Local police officials insisted earlier in the day that race had not been a factor in Friday?s series of assaults.
?No, what you have is a bunch of juveniles that are obviously out there doing criminal activity,? Philadelphia Police Lt. John Stanford told The Post. ?There hasn?t been any indication that race is involved in this in any shape or form.?
Stanford said the attacks ultimately stem from ?a lack of home training? for the teens or young adults on the streets engaging in whatever mayhem they can find.
?Those kids that are actually assaulting people and robbing people, there?s a bigger issue that certainly goes beyond race.?
?Those kids that are actually assaulting people and robbing people, there?s a bigger issue that certainly goes beyond race,? said Stanford, adding that detectives would be ?in front of? any evidence suggesting that race played a role.
?Unfortunately, perception is reality for a lot of people, but that doesn?t mean it?s factual,? Stanford continued. ?You have a bunch of kids who are out there acting completely unruly and they get in a situation where they assault someone who they think is vulnerable, someone who can be a victim in their minds.?
Lauletta, meanwhile, said his daughter has returned to her apartment near the university. He said he?s unclear whether she attended classes on Tuesday. The dean at Temple?s Fox School of Business has told her she can take off as much time as she needs to recover from the incident without worry that it will impact her 3.6 GPA, Lauletta said.
?They offered all kinds of services, too, counseling, escorts home, things like that,? he said.
But Lauletta said his daughter just wants the entire incident behind her.
?She won?t talk to anybody,? Lauletta said. ?Everybody?s asking me. She wants it to stop. But this thing has legs now. People are saying it?s a racial thing, that it?s pretty much a hate crime.?
Lauletta said he let his daughter read and approve his Facebook message before posting it late Saturday, after spending the night in a hospital emergency room with Christina.
?She approved it, I made sure,? he continued. ?I told her I have to post something, I just wanted to vent. As soon as I wrote it, it got shared and then it got shared by another and another person. It just went wild.?
Lauletta, who also attended Temple University, told WXTF earlier Tuesday that he ?absolutely? felt different about his daughter going to the school after the attack, but he clarified those comments, saying he wants her to stay.
?I need her to be more cognizant and less trusting,? he said. ?I need her to not take the subway and to drive her car. I absolutely want her to be in business school at Temple, she?s doing very well. She just has to be more aware and not do certain things and change her patterns.?
Lauletta called on Temple University officials to do a better and faster job of notifying students about active incidents on campus, saying the hour between the report of the first assault at about 8:30 p.m. and the school?s post on Twitter at 9:32 p.m. was simply too long.
Christina Lauletta and her father, Joe Lauletta.
Photo: Facebook
?They really need to look inside themselves on how they?re going to communicate with students and parents because it?s not working right now,? said Lauletta, who added that some Temple students and their parents learned of the attacks from him or his Facebook page.
Brandon Lausch, a university spokesman, said Temple University police and the Philadelphia Police Department will increase police presence near the school, especially on weekends for the foreseeable future.
In addition to increased police presence, Temple President Richard Englert said the university is monitoring social media sites and working with nearby businesses to ensure student safety. The university will also work with city officials to ?aggressively prosecute? anyone guilty of crimes like those committed on Friday.
?Finally, I want to remind you that while last weekend?s events received tremendous media attention, Temple remains a very safe campus,? Englert?s statement concluded. ?Last year a published report showed that Temple is one of the safest schools in the region. I want to thank all of the members of the Temple community ? our faculty, our administrators and our students. You are the ones who, day after day, do so much to contribute to our campus? safety.?
Lausch declined to comment on Lauletta?s statement that ?everyone can draw their own conclusions? as to what motivated the alleged suspects, ages 15 and 17, in the assault. He also declined to comment on specific students, citing privacy concerns.
?However, I can say that when our student need time and support, we reach out to them and offer to do everything we can,? Lausch wrote in an email.
But at least one victim in the assaults called on Temple University to do a better job alerting students next time a similar incident occurs. The unidentified student, a junior majoring in environmental science, told TheTab.com she and her boyfriend saw up to ?40 kids? running near Oxford and 16th streets in north Philadelphia around 8 p.m. Friday.
?We then crossed the street but two kids followed us and hit my boyfriend,? she told TheTab.com. ?My boyfriend ran and got away but the second I tried to run, they grabbed me by my hair and started beating my head and back.?
The student said she remembers someone in the group saying ?yo chill, yo chill, it?s just a girl? before pulling off her attackers.
?I got up and ran in the direction of my boyfriend?s house but no one was interested in me anymore,? she told The Tab.com.
The student, who received two black eyes during the assault, later replied to Temple?s alert, saying she got it two hours after she and others were attacked.
